SPEAKERS

Thomas Pologruto

Managing Director , Blackstone Technology and Innovations group

Thomas Pologruto is a Managing Director in the Blackstone Technology and Innovations group and serves as the firm’s Chief Data Architect as well as the Chief Technology Officer of Liquid Markets Technology (BAAM, GSO, BIS, BREDS, and Harvest) and Data Science. As Chief Data Architect, Mr. Pologruto is focused on bringing advanced data analytics, warehousing and visualization to all of the Blackstone corporate and investment teams, and across our liquid markets, he leads the group’s software engineering teams, which develop proprietary investment and allocation tools, trading platforms and risk systems. He was previously the Chief Technology Officer of the Hedge Fund Solutions group. Before joining Blackstone in 2019, Mr. Pologruto was a Quantitative Researcher and Senior Portfolio Manager at Kepos Capital. Prior to Kepos, he was the Chief Technology and Research Officer at Capstone Investment Advisors. Mr. Pologruto graduated cum laude and with distinction from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Physics, Biochemistry and Biophysics as well as with a MS in Chemistry. Mr. Pologruto received a PhD in Biophysics from Harvard University.  

Thomas Heck

Chief Investment Officer, Ball State University Foundation

Tom Heck, CFA is Chief Investment Officer Emeritus and former Treasurer of the Ball State University Foundation. In 2011 Mr. Heck led the foundation through the process of transitioning the investment program from a traditional consulting model to the OCIO model, including the selection of a provider. He now provides consulting services to notfor-profit organizations on investment and endowment policy and governance, OCIO searches, risk management and financial modeling. Mr. Heck is a past chairman and currently serves on the investment committee of the United Methodist Foundation of Indiana, is chair of the investment committee of the Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County, and has served on boards of several other church and not-for-profit organizations. He has also been a member of the limited partnership advisor boards for several private equity funds. Mr. Heck received a B.S. in Education from Purdue University in 1976, an M.S. in Accounting from Ball State University in 1983, and the CFA Charter in 2007.

Ross LeBlanc

Product Manager for Innovation, SimCorp

Ross LeBlanc is the Product Manager for Innovation at SimCorp. He joined SimCorp in 2017 to help bring Alternative Investments to the SimCorp platform. Ross has worked in the Alternative Investments software industry for the last 14 years, with global experience in consulting, presales and product management. He has the vision and knowledge to market and deliver innovative value-based solutions, and thrives on continued service to clients across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia.

Rob Balkema

Senior Director and Head of Multi-asset North America, Russell Investments

As Head of Multi-Asset Solutions, North America, Rob has primary responsibility for managing Russell Investments’ US Retail and Institutional Multi-Asset Solutions.  He is tasked with creating client strategic asset allocations, selecting third party active or passive strategies to populate asset classes, and tactically positioning the total portfolio for clients. 

Ravi Trivedi

Data Science Leader and Assistant Vice President, Nuveen

Ravi heads Data Science & AI Platforms at Nuveen. In his current role, he has developed AIXplorer, an award winning data science platform with a vision to bring data science to all associates. He works closely with business partners to help them leverage cost effective open source data science platform on Cloud. He has significant experience implementing Application Development, Data Science and Business Process Improvement solutions at Nuveen, TIAA, TCS, AT&38T and Hess. Ravi is also a founder and CEO of OneNine.AI, a technology startup building no code AI solutions with a goal to bring AI to everyone and accelerate organization’s AI journey. In the past, he has managed research teams of associates & college students to work on innovative projects and tools. He holds a BS in Computer Science and MBA concentrated in Business Analytics from New Jersey Institute of Technology. He closely partners with NJIT's College of Computing Sciences as an adviser and judge for their Capstone Program. He is also a board member at Junior Achievement of New Jersey, a nonprofit that empowers youth for success through mentorship.

Raghu Ramachandran

Head of Insurance Asset Channel, S&P Dow Jones Indices

Raghu Ramachandran is Head of Insurance Asset Channel at S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI). In this role, he is responsible for applying S&P DJI resources to solve problems for insurance companies. Raghu works on how indices are used to create innovative products for insurance companies, benchmarking general account portfolios and the use of ETFs by insurance companies. Raghu regularly writes and speaks about investment issues related to insurance. Raghu publishes a yearly analysis of ETF usage by insurance companies. In 2019 and 2018, the paper received the “Best ETFs Paper” award from Savvy Investor, and in 2017, the paper received a “Highly Commended” award in the same category. His co-authored paper “Variable Annuity Volatility Management: An Era of Risk-Control” has been included in syllabi for two different Society of Actuaries exams. Raghu has a bachelor’s degree in physics and a bachelor’s degree in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin

Phil Lynch

Senior Strategy Principal, SimCorp

Phil Lynch is a Senior Strategy Principal at SimCorp, on the Go To Market team responsible for Coric and the new digital portal. Phil is an accomplished executive who has held senior leadership positions in financial information and technology firms such as Reuters (Refinitv), Fidelity, SunGard (FIS), Asset Control, and SIX. In his various leadership roles, Phil has consistently identified growth opportunities and built multidisciplinary teams to develop compelling propositions and successfully take them to market. Over the course of his career Phil has focused on leveraging financial information and emerging technologies to enable customers and partners to increase efficiency, bring new and innovative products to market, and transform their business. Phil started his career in Financial Services in Boston, and has spent considerable time in New York, London, Latin America, the Netherlands, and most recently was based in Zurich Switzerland.    

Paul Fahey

Head of Investment Data Science, Asset Servicing, Northern Trust

Patrick Waters

Head of ESG Marketing, Wells Fargo Asset Management

Pat Waters is Head of Retirement and ESG Marketing at Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM), based in San Francisco, California. Prior to joining WFAM he served as Head of Retirement Marketing at State Street Global Advisors. He has also held marketing and product leadership roles at BlackRock and Charles Schwab. Pat holds a Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of West Georgia and a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Western Illinois University.

Marianne O

Co-Founder and Principle Portfolio Manager , Lumen Global Investments

MARIANNE is a Co-Founder and Partner at LGI. She is also a Co-Founder, Partner and Portfolio Manager of Lumen Advisors, LLC, a global investment management and advisory company formed in San Francisco in 2002. Marianne has been researching and investing in global developed and emerging markets across equities, bonds, and currencies for 25 years. At LGI she oversees investment research and implements the proprietary web-based application, the Lumen Global Value Compass. Her investment and finance career include mutual funds, institutional accounts, and hedge funds (global macro) in firms including G.T. Global, Dresdner RCM Global Investors, Tradewinds Financial, Gavekal Capital as well as loan syndication for Asian borrowers at Citicorp International Limited, Hong Kong. She co-chairs 100 Women in Finance (100women.org) in Northern California and chairs their Senior Practitioner Outreach through organizing educational events, FundWomen conferences, and peer-advisory group workshops. She currently sits on the investment committee of Asian Health Services in Oakland, California.  Marianne holds a M.B.A. in Finance from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.A. and B.A. in Economics from the University of Cambridge, Newnham College. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Marianne is fluent in Cantonese and proficient in Mandarin.

Marc A. Wright

Head of Data Strategy , Russell Investments

Marc has over 20 years of experience in Financial Services. Starting with Russell Investments Technology, Marc helped develop software to measure and attribute manager’s investment performance. He then spent the next few years based in EMEA, working directly with Investment Managers to explain their value proposition to clients. Shortly thereafter, Marc moved to BNY Mellon to lead their risk analytics client relationship teams. For the past few years, Marc has led Russell Investments’ Data Strategy program, centralizing enterprise data to more efficiently evaluate and present investment data to external and internal clients.  

Khadeeja Bassier

Chief Operating Officer, Ninety One

Khadeeja is the Chief Operating Officer at Ninety One. Khadeeja is based in South Africa and is also a member of the Global Executive Committee. The scope of her responsibilities include operations, technology and product development.Khadeeja was previously head of product and strategic change and has historically held various roles across the firm since joining in 2008.Khadeeja holds a Bachelor of Business Science degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Cape Town and is a qualified actuary (Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries).

Kevin Mahn

President and Chief Investment Officer, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management

Kevin Mahn is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Hennion & Walsh Asset Management. Mr. Mahn is responsible for the Wealth and Asset Management products and services offered at the Firm including the SmartTrust® platform of Unit Investment Trusts (UITs). Mr. Mahn also was the Portfolio Manager of the SmartGrowth® family of Mutual Funds. Mr. Mahn currently serves on the Board of Directors of NICSA and was formerly a Co-Chair of the NICSA UIT Industry Committee, winning the 2014 and 2016 NICSA MVP Awards for his accomplishments in that role. Kevin also won the Rising Stars of Mutual Funds Award from Institutional Investor in 2009. Mr. Mahn has appeared in/on CBS News, Fox News, CNBC, Fox Business News, Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, Fortune, Forbes, New York Times, Financial Times, USA Today, Bloomberg, Reuters, Nasdaq and Yahoo! Finance.  

Joseph Lodato

Global Head of Compliance Technology and Surveillance, Guggenheim Partners

Joe Lodato is Guggenheim Partners Global Head of Compliance Technology and Surveillance. Prior to this role, Joe was the Chief Compliance Officer of Guggenheim Securities, a full-service investment bank.  In his prior experience in compliance and operating roles, Joe led the successful integration of operations, compliance and technology to ensure an effective compliance program and drive productivity across multiple levels of the organization. His experience includes working in various business lines such as High Net Worth, Prime Brokerage, Clearing Services, Capital Markets and Asset Management in a variety of settings, from startups to global organizations, including Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, Barclays Capital and Alliance Bernstein.     Prior to financial services, Mr. Lodato worked in the healthcare industry in both emergency medical services and public health. He has served in board positions for a volunteer health care organization, a large Non-Profit Hospital system and an educational institution in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Joe graduated with a B.B.A. in Finance from the Lublin School of Business at Pace University in New York City.

Jack Tamposi

Senior Analyst, U.S. Institutional, Cerulli Associates

James (Jack) is the lead author of Cerulli’s North American Institutional Markets report. In support of Cerulli’s consulting business, Jack has led institutional market entry strategy and pricing optimization projects for U.S. and non-U.S. asset managers. During his time at Cerulli, he has contributed to reports across Cerulli’s suite of institutional research, focusing on topics such as insurance general accounts, outsourced chief investment officers, alternative investments, and U.S. subadvisory. He sets the agenda for Cerulli’s quarterly U.S. Institutional Edge publication.   Jack serves on the board of the Massachusetts Air & Space Museum. Prior to joining Cerulli, Jack worked as a Research Associate for Chatham Partners.  

Evan Fire

Chief Operating Officer, Pzena Investment Management

Mr. Fire joined the firm in 2003 and has held several roles during his tenure, including CIOO and CISO, responsible for the oversight of the Operations and Information Technology groups at the firm. Prior to joining Pzena, Mr. Fire was a Relationship Management Assistant at Brown Brothers Harriman, and a Client Service Representative at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Inc. He earned a B.S. in Management and Finance from Binghamton University.